Books with title Measure for Measure by Shakespeare,William.

William Shakespeares influence on drama and literatureand even the English language itselfis unprecedented. Surprisingly, the renowned playwrights life is full of mystery. This biography presents what is known about Shakespeare as well as the current theories about the unknown, even touching on the controversies about the authorship of some of his plays. Readers will also become familiar with 16th-century England, the monarchs Shakespeare entertained, and what being an actor was like at that time. Doubtless, the introduction to his masterpieces will inspire young thespians to read or attend one of the dramatists great works.

Many people regard William Shakespeare as the greatest writer of all time. Every year millions of people all over the world attend performances of his plays. Some of these plays have been made into movies, which attract even more people. His sonnets have wooed lovers for centuries. Nothing in Shakespeare s early life hinted at how famous he would later become or how he developed his writing talent. He grew up in a small town, dropped out of school early, and went to work. He had to get married when he was just eighteen. He had three children by the time he was twenty-one. Yet within a decade he was one of England s most successful playwrights. He wrote hit after hit after hit. Some were tragic and ended with corpses littering the stage. Others were comedies that wound up with happy couples getting married. They all expressed a wide variety of human feelings that are just as pertinent today as they were when Shakespeare wrote them. The universal emotions evoked by his work has guaranteed he would be not of an age, but for all time.

Almost 400 years after his death, interest in Shakespeare's life and work still persists. Much is often made of the fact that Shakespeare is an engima - the usual facets of biographical accounts are irretrevably missing, further enhancing his mystique. But as Dominic Shellard shows in this account, by viewing the playwright in the context of contemporary Elizabethan politics and the business of the theatre, we know more of his existence than is often generally thought, providing a background against which his literary output can be assessed.